BIOADAPTED is an interactive theatrical experiment by Transforma Theatre which employs texts about AI, some of which have been generated by GPT-3.
BIOADAPTED is a theatrical re-enactment of investigative documentary with actors portraying real people and scientists, paired with humorous and eerie fictional pieces about what our future might look like if the AI propagates in unethical ways that don't serve humankind.
presentation
On August 18th Transforma Theatre will offer an in-progress presentation of some of the scenes from BIOADAPTED. They will range from transcripts from the Science in Theatre Festival, with TED speaker and MIT researcher Heidi Boisvert and popular neuroscientist and hacker Moran Cerf, to an interview with whistleblower Blake Lamoine, as well as fictional pieces from Future Couples, Singular, and Affinity.
Panel Discussion: Artificial intelligence and aesthetics
NACL has begun a year-long investigation into Artificial Intelligence and Aesthetics, beginning with the hosting of Transforma Theatre and, earlier this summer, AnomalousCo — two companies embarking on explorations of this new frontier. A panel discussion about about Artificial Intelligence and its relationship to the Arts will follow the presentation.
What is AI? Why is everybody talking about it? Is it bad? Should we be afraid? Does it pose a threat to the creation and production of art?
Joining us will be:
Tjaša Ferme, director of BIOADAPTED
Heidi Boisvert, Technology and Innovation Director (MIT Fellow, TED speaker)
Jingyao Shao, Technology and Innovation Assistant (Ammerman Center Biennial Symposium on Arts & Technology; Turn Up Multimedia Festival)
Thomas Bartscherer, Peter Sourian Senior Lecturer in the Humanities at Bard College
Denise Poche-Jetter, Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive, Social and Developmental Psychology at the New School for Social Research
Jeremy Goren, Co-Artistic Director of AnomalousCo, director of Zebra 2.0 by Saviana Stanescu
The conversation will be moderated by NACL Artistic Director Brad Krumholz, whose recently-published Why Do Actors Train? Embodiment for Theatre Makers and Thinkers investigates the work of the actor through the lens of Embodied Cognition and related philosophical fields.
Photo by Jarret Robertson
Project Background
The jumping off point for BIOADAPTED is Researcher and MIT Fellow Heidi Boisvert’s TED-Talk on measuring how technology affects us with biodata and the building of an algorithm to create biomedia which would inspire empathy and spark social change. This inspired WGA Award-nominee Alexis Roblan to write the play Affinity. Excerpts of Affinity are interspersed with the AI generated letter to humanity “The Guardian Published” created by the artificial intelligence, GPT-3 (OpenAI’s powerful new language generator), as well as “Singular” - possible futures of the singularity created by James Yu in conversation with GPT-3, Tjaša Ferme's “Future Couples,” and documentary transcripts from panels and interviews. In the grand finale the audience will put GPT-3 on trial and interrogate it in real time.
The goal of the project is to investigate, interrogate, and educate, all while delivering a unique, interactive, science-enhanced experience. AI regulation and its implementation in government systems concerns all of us, and through our process of blending art and science, we make these issues “digestible,” empowering audiences to become active decision-makers and alert citizens protecting their own agency and human sovereignty.
CAST
Arianne Banda, Annemarie Hagenaars, Thammie Quach, and Nasay Ano
Transforma Treatre
Transforma Theatre Inc. is dedicated to creating interactive theatrical experiences at the nexus of science, consciousness and ritual. Transforma’s first piece was “The Female Role Model Project (FRMP)” using EEG headsets on stage to investigate contemporary gender structures from the perspective of four completely different female-identifying devisers sharing their autobiographical stories through a series of interactive games. FRMP was produced Off-Broadway in NYC’s premier hub for arts and technology - Three-Legged Dog (3LD) and at Bedlam Theatre, as part of the Edinburgh Fringe 2019. It received an Honorable mention in the Creativity category of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards and a nomination for the outstanding innovative design at New York Innovative Theatre Awards. It’s been called “Gender-and generation-transcending,” “Best 23 Shows of Edinburgh Fringe” by inews and brinkwire, and “Original, thought-provoking, funny, absorbing, GROUNDBREAKING WORK” by Kate Saffin, Fringe Review. In November 2021 Transforma created and produced a sold out Science in Theatre Festival at The Cell Theatre, featured in Forbes and American Theatre Magazine.
The Team:
Tjaša Ferme
CREATOR
Tjaša is the Founder and Artistic Director of Transforma Theatre Inc., dedicated to creating interactive theatre experiences at the nexus of science, consciousness and ritual. She is the creator of The Female Role Model Project blending interactive theatre with neuroscience produced on Off-Broadway at the premier Art and Tech Center 3-Legged Dog, in New York in November 2018. They were also featured at the Ammerman Biennial of Arts and Technology 2018. She is the creator of a short film Ophelia’s Flip (Cannes Film Festival, 2012), a farce hit Cocktales-Confessions of a Nymphomaniac (The Cell, Abingdon Theatre, Art Basel Miami), an interactive solo show, Wild Child in the City, and a new play My Marlene. Wild Child In The City premiered in NYC (TheaterLab), filled houses on European Tours and received an Audience Choice Award at 46th TSD-Week of Slovenian Drama. Wild Child won a grant from Trust for Mutual Understanding for a tour at ITI-UNESCO MonoAkt festival in Kosovo, winning a Special Jury Prize, and “Northern Meetings” in Siberia.
Heidi J. Boisvert
BCI DEVELOPER
Heidi Boisvert is an artist, scientist and creative technologist. Heidi is currently an MIT research affiliate and an Assistant Professor of AI and the Arts: Immersive Performance Technologies at the University of the Florida, College of the Arts, School of Theatre and Dance. She has previously been a TED Resident, and is currently developing the first media genome: an open-source biometric lab and AI system to isolate the narrative ingredients that move us to act. She is also a member of the New Inc’s 6th and & 7th cohort in the Creative Science track, and has been working with David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar on Theater of the Mind, an immersive theater piece for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as a Technology Designer.
Matthew McAdon
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Matthew McAdon has been collaborating with the STREB Company for fifteen years and is entering his ninth year as STREB’s Technical Director. Most recently, Mr. McAdon designed the Gunk Machine prototype used in Elizabeth Streb’s and Anne Bogart’s collaborative production Falling And Loving. With a background in mechanical and scenic design, prototype design, live performance technology, stunt rigging and technical direction, Mr. McAdon has collaborated with organizations such as Bang On A Can, American Repertory Theater, The Barclays Center, Lincoln Center, City Center, the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Natural History Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and many more.
Jingyao Shao
BCI ASSISTANT DEVELOPER
Jingyao Shao is a Chinese new media artist based in Brooklyn, who speculates different dimensions of self-perception through installations, performances, and research. With individual and collective narratives, her works aim to evoke present conversations about the architecture of interpersonal relationships, across the spectrum from isolation to connection. She is a memory archiver, conscientiously examining in retrieval and morphosis of what has been left in the past, and planting it in new mediums through her practices. She is curious about what memory resonates among people and seeks to build invisible ties to people and space with her cultivation. Her work is also influenced by her reflections and questions on culture and gender structures, both looking back on cultural nostalgia and forward to future bodies. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Washington and a Master of Professional degree at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Oliver Zeller
DESIGNER
Formerly Partner/Creative Director at design & architecture firm NAU - selected Adweek'sinaugural Talent 100 (adNAU) - and at tech startup Blackbox AI. Oliver has worked as aproduction designer on events and commercials for clients including Fiat Chrysler, Mercedes,Syfy, T-Mobile, Nike, Disney, Universal Studios and the world's leading event and experiencemarketing agency GPJ. His stage visuals have appeared in Madonna's Reinvention Tour andbeen projected onto the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal for Häagen-Dazs & Creative Time'sHoliday Light Show. His film credits include Sr. Digital Set Designer on Disney's Prince of Persia,Ast. Art Director on Netflix's The Woman in the Window & A24's After Yang and Oliver oversaw psychedelic design for Amazon Studios on Birds of Paradise. A Scenic Design member, Tech & Innovation Committee Chair, at United Scenic Artists, I.A.T.S.E. Local 829, Oliver has written extensively on the intersection of architecture and media for MARK Magazine and was guest speaker at the AEDES Architecture Forum in Berlin.